A hacker successfully breached cryptocurrency mining marketplace NiceHash, resulting in the theft of up to $62 million worth of bitcoins.
The NiceHash website had gone offline earlier in the day, which the company had chalked up to maintenance. However, the team revealed the true nature of the outage through an announcement posted on the service’s social media channels, confirming users’ worst fears after hours frenzied speculation.
Although NiceHash has not confirmed the number of bitcoins stolen, NiceHash users have circulated a wallet address that suggests that 4,736.42 BTC — worth more than $62 million at the current exchange rate — was drained from the company’s hot wallet.
“While the full scope of what happened is not yet known, we recommend, as a precaution, that you change your online passwords.”
The NiceHash website had gone offline earlier in the day, which the company had chalked up to maintenance. However, the team revealed the true nature of the outage through an announcement posted on the service’s social media channels, confirming users’ worst fears after hours frenzied speculation.
According to NiceHash:“Dear NiceHash users!Unfortunately, there has been a security breach involving NiceHash website. We are currently investigating the nature of the incident and, as a result, we are stopping all operations for the next 24 hours.Importantly, our payment system was compromised and the contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken.”
Although NiceHash has not confirmed the number of bitcoins stolen, NiceHash users have circulated a wallet address that suggests that 4,736.42 BTC — worth more than $62 million at the current exchange rate — was drained from the company’s hot wallet.
“While the full scope of what happened is not yet known, we recommend, as a precaution, that you change your online passwords.”
